2-888-581 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Exhibition Building in Hyde Park - the Gutter-Cutting Machine, 1850. 'It must be borne in mind, that, besides the rain-water gutter in the top of the timber, there are two inclined gutters cut in the sides of the gutter timber, the purpose of which...is for receiving and carrying off the condensed vapour from the inside of the glass of the skylights...Motion is given to the gutter-cutting machine by means of two 48-inch pulleys, turning on the main shaft running across the building on the first-floor...Eighty-four lengths of solid gutters are passed through and finished, as regards their transverse section, in the twenty hours, or double day: thus a total length of 2037 feet is ready to be carted off to the building in Hyde-Park each day'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.